It
is on days like this that we are reminded of how much more alike than different
we are, when we see that tears have no color, when ideologies melt into a
common heart broken by sorrow. – Charles Blow, The New York Times, July 20,
2012
Columbine.
Virginia Tech. Tucson. Aurora.
The meaning of each place was forever altered by the random violence of
troubled people. When news of a mass
shooting first breaks, we are immediately confronted with images of guns,
death, and violence, the blood of victims, and the tears of friends and family. As a parent, I know that but for the grace of
God have I not received that frightening call, to learn that my child is the
victim of a random, senseless shooting, at a school, a college campus, a
political event, a movie theater. In Aurora,
as elsewhere, memorials will be built, foundations established, and vigils
held. “Where there is sorrow there is holy
ground,” wrote Oscar Wilde.
I wish I could write that these events are a
relatively new phenomena in the United States, or that however tragic, are exceedingly
rare. We are America, after all, the
home of the free and the land of the brave. But it takes very little searching
to realize that this simply is not so. Sadly, tragically, indiscriminate shootings
occur all too frequently within our borders.
According to Time magazine,
the United States averages nearly 20 shootings every year in which four or more
people die. Aurora is only the latest
example. The Brady Campaign to Prevent
Gun Violence has compiled a 62-page list of over 400 mass shootings that have
occurred since 2005. They seem almost
routine:
- On July 17, three days before the Aurora shooting, a gunman stood outside of a crowded bar in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and opened fire, injuring seventeen people.
- On July 9, in Dover, Delaware, gunfire erupted at a weekend soccer tournament, killing three people and wounding two more.
- Over Memorial Day weekend, Chicago experienced 40 shootings and ten murders.
- On April 2, seven people were killed and three wounded during a shooting rampage at a religious vocational school in Oakland, California.
- On March 30, fourteen people were shot when three men opened fire on rival gang members.
- On March 8, a gunman opened fire in the lobby of a psychiatric hospital in Pittsburgh, killing one person and wounding seven more, including a police officer.
- On March 3, in Tempe, Arizona, fourteen people were shot when three men opened fire on rival gang members.
- On February 27, in Chardon, Ohio, a disturbed student randomly opened fire at a group of high school students sitting at a table. Three teenage students were killed and two seriously wounded.
- On February 26, in Jackson, Tennessee, 20 people were wounded and one killed during a shooting at a nightclub.
It is a list without end. The truth is made worse by the reality that
virtually no one in American political life has the guts or courage to speak
out against the insanity of an American-bred culture of guns and violence that
serves only to breed guns and violence.
“The bitterest tears shed over graves,”
admonished Harriet Beecher Stowe, “are for words left unsaid and deeds left
undone.” It is time for the nation to
search its soul, to come together and develop solutions to an all too American
problem.
They say that “guns don’t kill people – people kill
people.” But when we equate liberty with
the right of gun dealers and manufacturers to sell their death-molding instruments
to as many people as possible; when we equate freedom with the right to buy as
many weapons and bullets as one desires, we cannot be surprised when people use
these instruments in destructive ways.
We live in a nation with an
historical link and emotional connection to guns; in some circles, the right to
bear arms is more sacred than the freedom of speech or the right of assembly,
the separation of church and state or the right to privacy. Politicians fear the gun lobby. Money talks and the gun lobby is loaded with
money. American democracy and public
safety have become collateral damage of a nation with a warped sense of the
common good. “The fault,” said
Shakespeare, “is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
We are nation of 300 million guns
and few restrictions. There are nearly
nine privately-owned guns for every ten American citizens. In most states, it is easier to obtain a
license to carry a concealed weapon than it is to get a driver’s license;
easier to buy a gun, or two or three, than to buy a car or open a bank account.
Toy guns are more highly regulated than real ones. Is it any wonder, then, that 30,000 Americans
die every year from gun related deaths, while 100,000 of us are
assaulted by guns? What does it say
about us as a people that, since the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr.
and Robert Kennedy in 1968, over one million Americans have died from gunshot
wounds?
When 24-year-old James Holmes
walked into a packed Aurora movie theater last week, he had in his possession
two pistols, a shotgun, and a military-style AR-15 with a 100-round clip. He had legally purchased all of his weaponry,
along with a cache of 6,000-bullets. For
much of his arsenal, Holmes needed only a credit card and an internet
connection. And yet, after he opened
fire, killing twelve innocent people and wounding 58 more, we acted shocked and
surprised and talked about not politicizing the tragedy. A few days later, we went about business as
usual.
For the survivors of Aurora, and
the families and friends of those who perished for no reason other than that they
were in the wrong place at the wrong time, the tears and sorrow will linger for
a lifetime. “As we do when confronted by
moments of darkness and challenge,” offered President Obama after the tragic
shooting, “we must now come together as one American family.”
In the end, this is mostly an
American problem. We must develop our
own solutions. “The world is full of
suffering,” said Helen Keller, “it is also full of overcoming it.” It is time for common sense to prevail; to
start a national conversation on everything from gun safety to the adequacy of
our mental health system.
Gun proponents must accept the
need for reasonable restrictions on gun ownership. They must stop treating every attempt to restrict
the unlimited sale of assault weapons and easy access to guns and ammunition as
a threat to freedom. Guns are not toys;
they are instruments of death. If we are
going to allow ordinary citizens to own them, as a society we should be
permitted to place a substantial burden on the individual to establish that he
or she can be trusted with a gun. Conversely,
advocates of gun control must accept that there exists a long history and
tradition of gun ownership in this country.
We must find a way to communicate in a manner that understands an
individual’s constitutional right to bear arms and recognizes that there are
many safe, responsible gun owners; and that laws alone will not prevent a
determined, mentally disturbed person from accessing and using a firearm. But we should not make it easy for him.
Among the victims in Aurora was Veronica
Moser Sullivan, a six year-old girl with a beautiful smile; three men in their
mid-twenties, each of whom died while shielding and saving the lives of their
girlfriends; a 24 year-old woman who was an aspiring journalist; a 27 year-old
Navy technician; a 51 year-old father who had accompanied his two teenage
children to the movie; a 32 year-old mother of two; a 29 year-old Air Force
reservist; an 18 year-old recent high school graduate; a 23 year-old woman who had saved her money and planned to travel abroad; and a 27 year-old man
who died on his birthday, days before his first wedding anniversary. “In the night of death, hope sees a star,”
wrote Robert Ingersoll, “and listening love can hear the rustle of a
wing.” It is time to find common ground,
to set aside partisan differences and develop ways to prevent another
Aurora. We owe it to the victims of the
Aurora shootings. We owe it to their
families. We owe it to each other.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment